Political party, student and worker youth movements in daily newspapers

Abstract

This study aims to analyse how daily Maltese newspapers and youth movements from political parties, student and worker organisations relate and perceive each other. This is principally, but not exclusively, sought through quantitative and qualitative research on the efforts and results obtained by youth movements in generating media coverage. The newspapers' attention to such movements is methodologically quantified and analysed to assess the attention youth movements get from the media. Both exercises are supplemented by interviews with editors and youth leaders in an endeavor to identify and analyse the perceptions harboured by the subjects of the dissertation. The quantum of this evaluation is tested by a comprehensive research on the number of mentions in the daily newspapers. This data is analysed collectively and also specifically, as the researcher extracts the news items of each newspapers in a specific part of the study. All this is examined also by gathering data on the placement efforts and strategies used by the youth organizations. The study of what is actually published by the newspapers is supplemented by interviews with newspaper editors and leaders of youth movements. Other interviews with political and trade union leaders also contribute to the wider context of news value and to the political ambience. Ultimately the findings are discussed and analysed in depth with specialists in the field of Communication studies lecturing at the University of Malta.